| Biographical information | Guo Yǎn (郭琰) better known as Quách Đàm was born in 1863 in Cháozhōu (潮州), possibly in Zhàoqìng (肇庆) wich is today a prefecture-level city of the Guǎngdōng province in China.
He came very early in Vietnam. He started out very poor, making a living by recycling old bottles, duck feather, waste materials and other garbage for daily living. Later, he began to enter into other types of businesses and thanks to his hard working good calculation and trading he soon became a rich man.
Quách Đàm operated his businesses under the trade name of Thông Hiệp, but he was best known by his nickname “Handicapped Thôn” among local Chinese. He is at the origin of Bình Tây Market. After getting an approval of Cholon provincial government, he financed the construction (completed in March 1930) in the center of Cholon on a ground which Quách Đàm had received as grant from the municipality. He called the building "New Big Market" (Chợ Lớn mới) and donated it to the municipal authorities.
Considered as a benefactor after his death in 1927, his statue was erected in the central courtyard of the market. |
| Sources | Châu Hải, Các nhóm cộng đồng người Hoa ở Việt Nam, Nhà xuất bản khoa học xã hội, Hà Nội, 1992
DOVERT Stéphane et LE Quang Ninh (dir.), Saigon, trois siècles de développement urbain, Nhà xuất bản tổng hợp Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh, HCMV, 2004
Huỳnh Ngọc Trảng & Al., Saigon xưa Gia Định, Nhà xuất bản Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh, HCMV, 1996
KERMADEC Jean-Michel, Cholon, ville chinoise, Société asiatique d’édition, Saigon, 1995
TSAI Maw-Kuey, Les Chinois au Sud-Vietnam, Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, 1968 |
